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Jennifer Duvel and Gary Johnson Jr. were united in marriage June 19, 2004, at Glenwood Lutheran Church, rural Decorah. Pastor Susan Debner officiated the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Parents of the couple are Chuck and Lorna Duvel and Gary and Mary Johnson, all of Postville. Grandparents of the bride are Wilbur and Sarah Wilkins of Lansing and Orv and Laura Duvel of Postville. Grandparents of the groom are Roger and Norma Johnson of Waukon.

The bride was given in marriage by her father.

Her personal attendants were Patty Dahlstrom and Deirdre McConnell.

Kari Alexander and Andy Burke were joined in marriage September 25, 2004, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Waukon. Father Joe Schneider officiated with Pastor Ken Kimball co-celebrating the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Parents of the couple are Richard and Rose Kolsrud and Lennie and Linda Burke, all of Waukon. Grandparents of the bride are Robert and Eunice Kolsrud and Sue Vertein. Her great-grandparents are Charlotte Thorstenson and Dorothy Vertein. The groom’s grandmother is Anna Mae Curtin.

Hansmeier-
Dave and Bobbi Hansmeier of Waukon wish to announce the arrival of their third child, a daughter, Paige Elizabeth. Born Friday, March 25, 2005, at Veterans Memorial Hospital, she was 7 pounds, 9.5 ounces. Paige joins siblings Tristan, 5, and Miles, 4.
Grandparents are Curt and Vicki Welch of McGregor and Richard and Pat Hansmeier of Waukon. Great-grandparents are Jean Monserud of Waukon and Ralph and Joan Welch of McGregor.



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Sarah (Wargin) Wilkins celebrated her 106th birthday with family and friends at Thornton Manor in Lansing Easter Sunday. Sarah was born March 27, 1899, near Harpers Ferry. She has three living children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Sarah loves to play bingo and attends Mass regularly. She has resided at Thornton Manor since 1999.

(Editor’s Note: This letter was originally published in the October 4, 2004 issue of “The New American”, and is being republished here with permission from the author. The dairy farm referred to in the letter is the Jim and Cathy Gelo farm near Postville.)

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

Good News!! I want to tell all the people who have been saving and turning in Quillin’s sales slips that your support is making this good news possible.

The Alumni Foundation just received a check for the school’s roofing project from the Quillin’s Food Ranch Share Program in the amount of $868.83 for sales slips turned in from October 1 through December 31, 2004. They gave us a one percent rebate on the total eligible sales, which we deposited in the Citizen’s State Bank Alumni Account.

Since the summer of 2000, states have been receiving pressure from the federal government to end a controversial, but legal, Medicaid funding mechanism known as the Inter-Governmental Transfer (IGT). Inter-governmental transfers are a funding mechanism used by a number of states to qualify for additional money from the federal government.

Last week in my newsletter I mentioned an innovative new idea for financing a proposed race-car track in Newton. The measure was voted out of the Senate Ways and Means committee this week and is now awaiting debate on the Senate floor. Some have expressed concern that this is bad tax policy, but I do not share that view.

The legislation would allow the owner/operator of the Newton Motor Speedway to retain up to $12.5 million in state sales tax that customers would pay for tickets, concessions and merchandise.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Public Interest Institute. They are brought to you in the interest of a better-informed citizenry.

Funding the Medicaid program is a tough issue not only for Iowa officials, but also in every state in the nation. Medicaid is one of, if not the, fastest growing portion of most state budgets. If elected officials look only at how to find more and more funding for the current Medicaid program, they will eventually face a full-blown budget crisis.

DES MOINES – State lawmakers, like the Iowans they serve, are struggling to come to terms with the anger, fear and horror spawned by the abduction and murder of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage.

Gage’s body was discovered in a ramshackle mobile home in Linn County nine days ago. A registered sex offender who befriended her family, Roger Paul Bentley, is charged in her death.

Lawmakers’ anger and intense desire to respond to the tragedy is palpable.